Town Square

Pleasanton Sports Park renamed for Ken Mercer

Original post made
on Jun 17, 2014

Pleasanton Sports and Recreation Park, a main public sports complex that extends northeast of Hopyard Road along Parkside Drive, has been renamed "Ken Mercer Sports Park" to honor the city's longest-serving mayor, who died last January.

Posted by Namdi
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Jun 17, 2014 at 12:17 am

I'm going to defer to the council in place. I've lived here a very long time, and always liked Mr. Mercer. Personally, I think he'd ask us to honor the 5 year wait, and then name it. Everyone is so impatient.

I guess this vote shows that the rules we have in place do not apply to elected officials or previous elected officials. We had a law that said we must wait 5 years but since this was a politician, the rules were ignored. No wonder people do not trust elected officials anymore.

Posted by Patriot
a resident of Carriage Gardens
on Jun 17, 2014 at 9:33 am

What an excellent testimonial for Ken Mercer---he gave thousands of hours of time and effort to the City of Pleasanton. He was a listener and a doer all in one and was a truly great leader in our Community - he was a believer of Pleasanton's long time motto--"Pleasanton--the City of Planned Progress." God Bless Ken Mercer.

Posted by old guy
a resident of Willow West
on Jun 17, 2014 at 10:10 am

Good point III. I often wonder why we devise laws / rules / regulations and then for some reason choose to ignore them. Personally I think a public city building would have afforded a more appropriate recognition of Ken Mercer's body of work for our city. However more important is how we expect our populace to follow these laws etc while making informed decisions to ignore them. Seems to be a message here. By the way on the way home last night around 10PM I noticed we as a city were once again watering much of the asphalt on Hopyard and locations in Hacienda business park. Once again rules devised by those in authority and then promptly ignored. I'm making a real effort to conserve and my depressing brown lawn depicts that effort. I expect no less of an effort by our water czars especially when these are their rules...

Posted by Amazed again
a resident of Amador Estates
on Jun 18, 2014 at 9:18 am

Once again we only have 1 elected official with the spine to stand up to the good ole boys crowd. I watched on tv and the mayor suggested a building or something other than the sports park, but caved when he did not get support.

A building or conference room or plaque makes better sense to me. Where is leadership with a spine?

Posted by Scott Walsh
a resident of Pleasanton Valley
on Jun 18, 2014 at 12:22 pm

Well deserved but I believe even Ken would have said wait because that is the "rule" on the books. He did not look at him as being something Special, but a citizen active in making the Community the best it could be.

It is unfortunate that the city council had to make this controversial by ignoring the rule on the book. The way this was handled by the council will ensure this honor is tainted. Perhaps this can be reconsidered by the council; not for the honoring of somebody but for not following the rule in place. If the council feels that this is an obvious choice of naming the park after Mercer, then they should feel confident that in five years, the council then will feel the same way. Trying to ram this name change through before the required 5 year wait is done makes it look like the council does not have the confidence that Mercer deserves the honor.

Posted by academicjock
a resident of Ponderosa
on Jun 24, 2014 at 8:36 am

Ignoring the "rules" is consistent with regard to Mercer. He and his 1980s city council ignored the general plan when, in one night in one vote, the future of Pleasanton was changed forever. The general plan allowed for 50% of the business parks that now exist yet, Mercer et al ignored the general plan and changed P-Town from a semi-rural residential city from which people commuted to work to the job center of the East Bay. The business parks are, mostly, nice looking business parks but nice looks do not make good neighbors.

I wouldn't deny Mercer the honor of his name being assigned to the sports park as the sports park was one very good thing. But, praising the man for how he changed Pleasanton is not appropriate.